"Europe Sings” is a project that involves selected professional and amateur choirs that will gather in Vienna. They will take people on a musical journey and present the old continent through the language of music. The program is based on the topic "100 Years of European History." Bulgaria will be represented at the event by the mixed choir of the BNR with conductor Dragomir Iosifov. Here is what he told us:

"On May 9 Europe Day is traditionally marked but one of the biggest music festivals also opens - The Vienna Festival Weeks. Both events will be marked with a concert that includes eight choirs from different parts of Europe. It was an honor for the mixed choir of the Bulgarian National Radio to be invited. Each choir will perform at the open stage in front of the City Hall downtown Vienna.  The choirs will also perform together fragments of popular works such as the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Verdi’s Nabucco; Symphony № 2 by Gustav Mahler and others.”

Each individual performance will be accompanied by a video promoting the country from which the choir came from.

The Symphony Orchestra of the Austrian broadcaster ORF will take part in the event and the concert will be broadcast all over Europe. The event is a co-production of the European Broadcasting Union with eight different countries - Austria, Germany, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Finland, France and Bulgaria. The BNT and BNR participate in the project as partners. The concert "Europe Sings" will be shown live on TV at 22.20 hours local time on May 9.

The culmination of "Europe Sings" will be a performance of the "Ode to Joy" from Symphony № 9 by Beethoven. Based on a poem by Friedrich Schiller, it has been a European anthem since 1972.

English version: Alexander Markov